My New G&L S500 Strat ...

[roger bayliss]

Put a live sound tecording of the S500 up for your interest...


http://shadowmusic.bdme.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11384

[dave robinson]

I'm sat here waiting for mine to arrive, I know it's coming today but no idea at what time . . . .

[roger bayliss]

But the excitement grows Dave !

[dave robinson]

Well it arrived at 3pm and I had a five minute blast on it before taking the strings off and fitting the Stetsbar, which took half an hour with re-stringing with a fresh pack of my preferred brand. They come with D'Darrios and their strings are a harder tension than Ernie Ball at the same gauge. They'd been on a while anyway as the guitar is an ex demo one and had been played. It's in great shape though and still as new, all the tags and cellophane were still in place and I've set it up and just had a blast for an hour.

What can I say, it's a beauty and covers all genres without a hitch. You know when these clowns on youtube do demos on guitars, why do they always make a bloody din ? Everything is based on distortion and overdrive and you look at the ones for this and if you were a novice you wouldn't buy it if what you were looking for was clean quality sound, but it's all there in abundance, from great Hank tones to Jeff Beck to Slash. As for it being made in Indonesia, it matters not. You can see and feel the quality in the materials, they're stunning, from the mahogany body & neck to the maple top and the great quality hardware. I shouldn't be surprised because it is fromG&L and they do have a reputation for quality. I understand now what Roger meant in an earlier posting, no need to spend a fortune on a USA model.

The Stetsbar has transformed this guitar and made it a very versatile instrument and my immediate thoughts are that it's a keeper. The coil tap gives me a twin pickup Strat sound (the middle pickup sound isn't quite there) but the bridge and neck pickups worked well for all the stuff I just went through just now and I don't see the point anyway in having another Strat, I've got six of those. Being able to switch from single coil to humbucker is a massive bonus for me in a band like ours and all my favourite sounds are in there . Let's see how it gigs and I'll have a better idea of it's merits as a 'one size fits all'.

[alanbakewell]

Oh I see......I'm alright Jack and B***er the Tobacconist.

[dave robinson]

I love it Alan

[roger bayliss]

Nice one Dave. The neck and bridge sound can cover the middle PU sound of a strat a little bit when coils are split I would think. Glad you can see what I was raving about now they are very good guitars. Fancy an ASAT ?

[dave robinson]

No Roger,, I have a couple of Teles', ai fifties one and a '62 Custom in sunburst bound.

[dave robinson]

I gave the new Fiorano a workout at the pub last night and all I can say is everything I'd hoped it would be great to play, great sounds and slightly different to the Strat on the clean tones, the humbuckers are killer tones too.
Daniel Martin was there and he thought it was the business and complimented me on the sounds coming out of it.
Do I recommend this model ? YES if you fancy a nice change, but no if you're expecting a Strat.

[roger bayliss]

Good to hear it went well Dave ... another Hankie tells me he is after an S500 now !